Christmas for the Wolves & a Wolf for Valentine's Day (Grey Wolf Pack) (20 page)

“You think they’re going to find love here?”

Jimmy gave her a wry smile. “Yeah, I mean who meets their mate at a party when they’re drunk, and they’ve lost all their inhibitions?”

Deanna blushed; that was exactly how she met her mate.

Hunter nodded his head at Casey. “We figure if this one can meet someone like you and trick her into mating with him – anything’s possible.”

Casey’s wolf huffed a little, but Casey couldn’t deny that logic. Best thing he ever did was convince Deanna to mate with him.
He still didn’t know how he pulled it off.

Deanna chewed her cheek. “Umm hmmm, and I take it all this alcohol was bought for you by a responsible adult?”

As much fun as Deanna wanted to have, she could never really shed her responsible side. Both Hunter and Jimmy were just shy of turning 21.

Jimmy nodded fervently. “We’ve made sure everyone who has come through the door is either over 21 or is with someone who is.”

Hunter agreed. “Yep, no need to arrest us. Unless you’re dying to see me in handcuffs?” He wagged his eyebrows suggestively.

Deanna giggled as Casey let out a furious roar. His wolf was livid.
Those handcuffs were for her job and sometimes for him and Deanna when they got a little kinky.

Hunter almost choked with laughter. “Ah, man, you’re just too easy.”

Deanna wriggled out of her mate’s grasp and put her drink down. “I’m going to the bathroom.”

“I’ll come too,” said Casey quickly.

Her eyes bulged a little. “No, I’d rather you didn’t.”

“You can’t go anywhere on your own.”

Jimmy gave him an odd look. “Jeez, man, she’s your mate, not your hostage. Let her go to the bathroom.”

Deanna fluttered her eyelids and brushed a kiss over her mate’s lips. “I won’t be long.”

Casey fidgeted as he watched her go. He found his friends giving him matching concerned looks. “What?” he snapped.

Hunter shrugged. “Nothing, you just seem so… different.”

Casey’s jaw ticked as his wolf prowled. “I guess I am different.”

“You’re lucky, Dee’s great. But, we’re still friends right?”

Casey frowned. “Of course.”

Jimmy licked his lips. “You know that we would never try anything with Dee, right? Don’t get me wrong, Dee’s hot, but we aren’t interested. She’s your mate, and we respect that.”

Casey let out a long sigh. “I’m trying to make my wolf believe that, but he just sees every male as a threat.”

Hunter chuckled. “Yeah, we’ll probably be the same when it happens to us. We just… kind of…” Hunter shifted uncomfortably.

Casey forced himself not to smile. His friends missed him. He’d been so paranoid about anyone trying to steal his mate that he had cut himself off from his friends. In his defense, they’d only been together for a few weeks.
The mating was very new
.

Casey shuffled from foot to foot as his wolf whined. “I’m sorry guys; I’ve been acting like an ass.”

“Nothing new there,” quipped Jimmy.

“I just can’t stand her being around unmated males.”

Hunter slapped him on the back. “Yeah, well, you have nothing to worry about from these two unmated males.”

“Yeah, plus we like Dee, we wanna hang out with the both of you,” agreed Jimmy.

Hunter looked at him wickedly. “Or if you wanna stay home and just let Dee come out and play with us, we’re fine with that too.”

Casey narrowed his eyes. “Not happening, asshole. But, yeah, for some unknown reason my mate actually likes you two. I keep telling her that you’re dumbasses, but she doesn’t believe me. I bet she’d like to hang out with you too.”

“Good, Dee will be happy to hear that; she was kind of worried about you…”

“What?” demanded Casey. “You’ve been talking about me behind my back with my mate?”

Jimmy groaned and shot Hunter a look of annoyance. “She was just a bit concerned about you. She’s worried that you seem to have given up your friends, as well as the pack. She was feeling guilty.”

His wolf squirmed a little. She had tried to broach the subject more than once, and he had always shot her down. He had gladly left his childhood pack to be with her. Damnit, he’d follow her to fucking Jupiter if he had to! But, he could understand that she was feeling like she was asking too much. She wasn’t, but he understood if she had a little doubt about it.

Hunter looked at him solemnly and put a hand on his shoulder. “You need to take care of your female. Or, if you’re not up to the task me and Jimmy…”

Casey knocked his hand away and punched him in the arm – hard. His wolf was at least happy with that. “I’ll catch you guys later; I gotta talk to my mate.”

They said goodbye while trying to hide their sniggers, and then disappeared into the party crowd.

Casey was lucky to find Deanna just as she was getting out the bathroom. He took her by the waist and maneuvered her back inside. Eagerly, he pressed his lips to hers and took her mouth in a searing kiss.

She ran her hands over his shoulders and panted from the intensity of their embrace. “Not that I’m complaining, but what was that for?”

He leaned his forehead against hers. “I know you’re worried about me, but you don’t have to be.”

A look of irritation flitted over her pretty face. “Which one blabbed?”

A laugh rumbled through his muscled chest. ‘Doesn’t matter; I’m not giving up my friends, I’m just having a bit of trouble trying to prove to my wolf that you’re safe around them. They’re major horndogs.”

“I’m safe around any men, because, even if they are horndogs, I’m only horny for one guy. You might know him, six foot two, very cute and an absolute god between the sheets.”

His wolf puffed out his chest. “Yeah, that rings a bell.”

A twinge of guilt assaulted her, and her bobcat whimpered softly. She hadn’t realized how hard he was finding their transition to mated couple, and she hadn’t exactly helped. “I’m sorry if me teasing you about Jake made things worse.”

Casey ran his hands over her ass. “Don’t be sorry, I kind of like you teasing me. I know you’re kidding, and I like you when you’re playful.”

Deanna preened and pushed her body against his. “Yeah?”

“Yeah, kitten,” he murmured in her ear.

She felt a tingling as his rock-hard erection pressed against her stomach. “You know, this bathroom reminds me of our first time.”

A smug smile adorned his face. “Oh yeah, when you seduced me and demanded I make love to you.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Or more like you were hiding from your ex-girlfriend and literally ran into me.”

Casey ran his hands down her legs as he kneeled in front of her. “And then you seduced me…”

“And then I was so attracted to you that I… that I asked you if you wanted to… you know…

“Send you to heaven?” He slowly unzipped her boots and took them off. Next followed her pantyhose and,
he almost swooned at seeing it
, her thong.

Deanna wriggled her hips and moaned as he pushed a finger inside her heat. “Sure, okay, and then you practically tripped over your tongue getting me to the bathroom.”

“What can I say? It wasn’t every day that an angel practically ripped her clothes off to be with me, speaking of which…”

He abruptly stood up and pulled her dress over her head. Her hands sought his shirt, roughly pulling it open. She kissed her way over his chest as he desperately freed himself from his pants.

He cupped her ass and pulled her up his body, quickly impaling her on his thick length. She cried out in delight as every nerve ending came alive. He pushed her against the wall and began driving himself into her with fierce strokes. She squealed each time he filled her, dancing a delicious line between pain and pleasure.

Her bobcat yowled in glee, and her claws sprung forth, digging into his hard shoulders. He roared and forced himself inside her, enthusiastically seeking his release. His own claws lengthened and pierced the soft flesh of her milky thighs.

Deanna screamed as her orgasm struck her like lightning. She clutched at his body as her bobcat went wild, and her body shuddered around him. It was too much for him; he roared and exploded inside her, burying his head in her shoulder and eagerly biting her. His wolf howled, and she moaned as an unexpected second climax rocked her body.

Casey held his whimpering and trembling mate as he laved the fresh bite mark on her shoulder. Since bonding, he hadn’t bitten her again. Yes, often their claws came out to play – so often that they were grateful they were shifters. Otherwise, they’d look like pincushions, but he didn’t tend to bite. However, if this were the way she was going to react, he could see that he would have to make it a regular thing.

She hungrily sought his mouth and groaned at tasting her own blood on his tongue.

A sharp knock on the door brought them back to their senses. “Would you hurry up? We need to use the bathroom!”

Casey chuckled and gave his mate another quick kiss. “Happy Valentine’s, kitten.”

“Happy Valentine’s, mate.”
Mine
.

Kira & Gabe – Wedding

12
th
February

“Oh my god! This is a disaster! The wedding is cursed! We’re never getting married!”

Kira Norton hugged her twin sister, Lilah. “It’s okay, honey. It’s gonna be okay.”

Kira was in New Mexico for her sister’s wedding. Lilah was due to marry her true mate, Tommy, a massive bear shifter, on Valentine’s Day.
However, things were not exactly running smoothly.
Other than the latest disaster, there had been issues with the caterers, hiring the tables and chairs, the honeymoon plane tickets, family members turning up who hadn’t RSVP’d…

Lilah sobbed into her sister’s shoulder. “Why did I think a month was long enough to plan a wedding?”

Kira soothed her and rubbed her back as her wolf tried to pacify her. “It’ll be fine; we can handle this.”

Kira and Lilah were both wolf shifters and Omegas. They were able to sense and help soothe their pack mates’ emotions. Kira lived in Virginia with her mate; a wolf shifter called Gabe North, who she had mated with a couple of months ago. He was also visiting, but while Kira was in charge of keeping Lilah on track, Gabe had been drafted in to take charge of Tommy.

Lilah, after a disastrously bad first marriage to an abusive wolf shifter, met her true mate just before Christmas. By New Year’s, they were engaged. Lilah wanted to wait until they were married to bond with one another, and, unable to wait for long, Tommy insisted they get married as soon as absolutely possible. He was besotted with Lilah, and desperately wanted her bonded to him before she had a chance to change her mind. They had dated as teenagers, but Tommy had dumped her when he went to college, for which he was now infinitely ashamed and determined to make it up to her.
Not to mention he was resolved to try and make her forget her awful first husband.

It was, however, proving difficult to arrange the big, family wedding they both wanted at such short notice.

“I think it’s nice,” put in Hanna, one of the twins’ younger sisters.

“You would,” snorted Nina.

Kira looked at them both through narrowed eyes and mouthed at them to shut the hell up. Hanna and Nina took after their mother, in that they were both witches, whereas the twins took after their wolf shifter father. Hanna was unremittingly girly and had a large collection of pony shaped soft toys, while Nina had suddenly become interested in wearing leather jackets, thick black eyeliner and unrelenting sarcasm...

Lilah sniffed and let go of Kira. The four sisters looked at the wedding dress critically.

Lilah waved her arms around. “I can’t wear this.”

Hanna shrugged. “Why not?”

“It’s pink!”

“So what?” Hanna fingered the bodice. “Hardly anyone wears white anymore.”

Nina nodded in agreement. “Yeah, it’s not like you’re a virg… oof.”

Kira elbowed her, and her wolf grumbled at their little sister. She was given a death glare in return.

Hanna ignored them. “Lots of people have all sorts of colored wedding dresses. You can have red, gold, cream or even black.”

Nina stopped glowering. “I like that; I’m definitely having a black wedding dress if I ever find a dumbass worth marrying.”

“But in the meantime, what am I supposed to do with Barbie’s prom dress?” asked Lilah, her voice cracking.

Kira looked at the dress shop owner. “Is there any way it can be dyed a different color?”

The nervous looking rabbit shifter shook her head. “No, it would ruin the material.”

“Is there any way a new dress can be made?”

The rabbit sighed. “Not by Valentine’s Day.”

Kira looked around the shop. “Could we take one of these off-the-rack dresses instead?”

“Sure, I’ll pull together everything in Lilah’s size.”

“I still think you should go with the pink one,” insisted Hanna.

Lilah tried to stem her burgeoning tears. “I don’t think…”

Kira held Lilah’s hand. “You could always try it on. It is a really pretty dress.”

Lilah bit her lip. “You don’t think it’s too girly?”

Kira squeezed her hand. “It’s vey girly, but what’s wrong with being girly?”

“I don’t know. Do you think Tommy will like it?”

Nina let out a chuckle. “You could walk down the aisle naked and he’d like it, actually, he’d probably prefer it.”

Kira pulled out her cell phone. “I tell you what, I’ll find out whether Tommy likes pink while you try it on.”

*

“Fuck, Lilah’s never going to marry me know. What am I supposed to do? My life is over.”

Gabe passed the hyperventilating bear shifter the paper bag he had taken to carrying around.

Gabe and his mate Kira had only been in town since the previous evening, but they had been thoroughly sucked into the madness of the wedding preparations. Tommy’s best man was, unfortunately, detained, for thirty days in the county lock-up, and couldn’t make the wedding. Kira had volunteered Gabe to take his place. Gabe didn’t mind really, he’d do anything his mate asked and besides, he liked Tommy and wanted his sister-in-law to be happy. However, anything that could go wrong had, and it left Lilah tearful and wanting to cancel the wedding, which led to Tommy panicking that he and Lilah would never be together.

Gabe looked up at the huge bear shifter and shrugged. “It’ll be fine.”

Tommy looked at him like he was mad. “How can it be fine? Lilah wanted white tulips and they’ve delivered pink ones. This is a disaster – she’ll never forgive me!”

Gabe gave him a disapproving frown. “I don’t think you give Lilah enough credit.”

Tommy looked a little guilty and was about to say something when Gabe’s phone rang. “Hold that thought, it’s Kira.”

He walked a few steps away and answered. “Hey, flower.”

“Hey, Bambi. How’s yours doing?”

He immediately warmed at hearing his mate’s voice and his wolf sighed contentedly. “Currently going into the meltdown about the flowers, how ‘bout yours?”

She let out a small giggle. “Ditto about the wedding dress. Hey, does Tommy like pink?”

Gabe paused and looked at the big man currently scrubbing his hands over his face. He doubted the bear shifter had ever been asked that question. “Well, given that the white flowers have arrived and they’re actually pink, I think that he can learn to love pink in the next couple of days.”

“No way! Listen, Lilah’s wedding dress has accidentally been made in pink fabric instead of white. She looks beautiful, but she’s not sure about the color.”

Gabe chuckled. “Tell her she’ll match the flowers.”

“She wants to make sure that Tommy won’t mind her wearing a pink dress.”

“I know he won’t, but gimme a second.” Gabe pulled the phone away from his ear. “Hey, Tommy, how would you feel if Lilah wore a pink wedding dress?”

Tommy’s look of worry melted to adoration. “She’ll look beautiful in pink.”

Gabe nodded and pulled the phone back. “That’s a go for pink. How would she feel about the flowers being pink?”

“I already asked, and she’s fine with that, she says that at least the flowers will make it look like she chose pink for her dress on purpose.”

Gabe breathed a sigh of relief. “Hey, that’s great, I love it when a plan comes together.”

Kira giggled down the phone. “Right back at ya, Hannibal. If I haven’t said it before, thank you, and I love you for helping out like this. You’re the best.”

His wolf puffed out his chest. “You don’t have to thank me; I’m your mate. Your pain is my pain. But, I better get going, because my pain is starting to get antsy. I love you.”

“Me too, bye.”

Gabe clicked his phone off and gave Tommy the good news. The agitated bear almost collapsed in relief.

Gabe patted him on the back. “Two more days and this will all be over.”

*

13
th
February

“Oh hell! This is a disaster! The wedding is cursed! We’re never going to be able to get married tomorrow!”

Kira once again pulled her twin into a comforting hug.

“Why not?” asked Hanna, “I think it’s really kooky.”

“You would,” sneered Nina.

Kira growled at both of them and soothed her sister. It was déjà vu again. This time, it was another problem with the caterers. The first caterers they had hired canceled at the last minute. They were a husband and wife team who were getting a sudden divorce and therefore refused to work with one another. When they had called to cancel, they hadn’t put it so succinctly as that, and words like adulterer and lying bastard had been thrown around.

At the last minute, they had hired the same caterer that provides refreshments for the dances at the local high school. Unfortunately, something seemed to have been lost in translation, and they had just taken delivery of hundreds of pink coconut snack cakes, packs of crackers and bags of pretzels.

Their mother, Mari looked through the food carefully. “Sweetheart, it’s going to be okay. We just have to improvise a bit.”

“The pretzels and crackers could be entrees,” suggested Hanna.

Nina agreed. “Yeah, we could get loads of different kids of dips for them.”

Hanna bobbed her head in agreement. “We could get some tortilla chips too, and some vegetables, to go with the dips.”

Kira smiled. “We could have salsa, thousand island, barbecue – who doesn’t love dipping food.”

Lilah sniffled. “But we don’t have any of those things, and we’re still missing a main course and dessert.”

Kira snapped her fingers. “Pot luck.”

The other women in her family looked at her inquisitively, and Kira explained. “My new Alpha, when it was his wedding, the reception was done as a pot luck. All the pack wanted to contribute to helping out with the wedding, so they were asked to provide the food. Everyone brings a dish, so there’s always loads.”

Mari kissed her daughter on her temple. “Good thinking, brainiac.”

Lilah looked at them doubtfully. “Are you sure people won’t mind?”

Mari waved away her concerns. “Of course not, everyone will be thrilled to help. You said that you didn’t know what presents you wanted. Well, this can be the presents.”

Lilah and Tommy had specified that they didn’t want presents as Tommy already had a house with furniture and appliances. Anything they didn’t already have, Lilah wanted to pick out herself.

“Well, if you think it will be okay…”

“It will be, honey. I’m going to make a quick call to our female Alpha, and she will put the word out that we need food. Then, when your father has finished helping with the tables, we will go to Bulk Buy and pick up some dips and vegetables. Everything’s going to be fine.”

Mari made kissing noises at all her daughters and left to find her mate.

Kira beamed. “You see? Crisis averted!”

Lilah let out a nervous chuckle. “Yeah, thank god. I’m sorry I’m turning into a bridezilla.”

Nina affected a look of surprise. “What? You? Never!”

Hanna rolled her eyes. “Ignore her, you’re the bride, you’re allowed to be as bat-crap crazy as you want.”

Lilah’s eyes widened. “So you do think I’ve been bat-crap crazy?”

Kira rubbed her arm. “Ignore both of them. The only thing that’s important is that this time tomorrow, you’ll be married to your mate and all these hiccups will be a distant memory.”

*

“Crap! Fucking hell! Lilah’s going to call off the wedding! What am I supposed to do? My life is ruined!”

Gabe smiled indulgently at the overly-dramatic bear shifter. “It’s going to be okay.”

Tommy’s eyes flashed to black as his teeth and fangs surged forward. “How is it going to be okay?” he hissed.

Gabe’s wolf snarled, but he pushed him back. The bear wasn’t making a challenge; he was just upset. The wedding cake Tommy and Lilah had ordered had met with an unfortunate accident.
The cake shop had dropped it as they were trying to move it.

The cake shop owner was very apologetic, but the only alternative cakes they could offer weren’t exactly thrilling. One was for a toddler’s birthday, and one was for a wake. What they really needed was a three-tier coconut cake with vanilla buttercream icing.
However, they weren’t going to get it.

Tommy almost looked like he was on the verge of tears.

Gabe slapped him on the back in a friendly fashion. “I’m gonna call Kira, and together we will think of a solution. Everything’s going to be fine.”

He pulled out his phone and started dialing his mate. She answered on the first ring with a cheerful hello. His wolf almost purred when she came on the line; they hadn’t seen enough of each other during the past few days.

“Hey, flower, how’s everything on your end?”

“We had a mini-crisis with the caterers but everything’s in hand. How about you?”

Gabe looked at Tommy and gave him a reassuring smile. “We have a problem with the cake.”